How well do you know your guitar?

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Krystof01

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I have recently posted two threads on guitar modifications whcih got my mind into thinking about how well I know my guitars; how well I know my way around a guitar.

How well do you know/trust yourself with your guitar(s)? Do you just play them and not pay attention to anything else? Can you set your guitar up, know about various pickups and also how to fit them (i.e. the electronics of your guitar), would you modify parts yourself or get others to do them?

General discussion if you like. Someone should do a poll, I can't be bothered.
 
For electric guitars I have no problem setting intonation, adjusting the neck, string heights. Rewiring, adding pickups, phase switchs etc. I wouldn't attempt fret dressing or refretting myself though.

Acoustics I don't go near as far as setup's etc. I bring them to someone who has the tools and experience.
 
No way would I mess with an acoustic....my old Gibson needs an adjustment right now but that wooden bridge freaks me out.....

I can pretty much do height, saddle/bridge adjustments on my electrics, but I've never fooled with a neck in any way.....nor have I ever had to install pups or re-wire, but I've raised/lowered pups before....

I know a guy who's a pretty good guitar player, and he hates to even change strings.......go figure....changing strings is about as basic as it gets....he also can never get his guitar in tune......lazy or entitled?.......gibs
 
I do the basics - intonation, minor adjustments to strings/heights/pickups, etc...

But I have a great guitar tech that I let do most of my setups and more in-depth work.

Bruce
 
I was a guitar tech for a couple years with Charvel-Jackson.I still pay another guy to work on my axes (the guy that taught me).

Tom
 
nope..

played guitar for almost 20 years now.. never did any modifications to them, except a one time height adjustment to the pickups and saddles, and adjusted the intonation..

Outside of changing the strings and wiping out the grit on the fretboard in between changes, I just leave them be...

Cy
 
I really don't work on my guitars much other then intonation, but I gotta question:

Pickups:

I bought a 79 les paul standard in like 93. The guitar is as old as me (22) It been great (allthough pretty heavy)

How do you buy pickups? I won't know how they'll sound until I buy them, so how many can you test out?

I'm almost positive the pickups were upgraded, because they look like regular humbuckers as opposed to most gibson pickups. (I think I remember a guitar teacher saying they are seymour duncans) Anyway If I were to get a new one, how hard are they to install/what do I look for?

I'd also be interested in changing out a pickup in my mexican strat. Any ideas on any of this?
 
Executivos; I only recently got into pick-ups. I had never really occured to me to change the pick-ups that were standard. But think about it, the pickup carries the sound (sure there are other factors of body material and mass (and your free to correct me on this)).

The last pick up I changed was on my mexican telecaster. Anyone with a telecaster wants that tele bridge tone so I got a standard USA bridge pick up of e-bay and put it in; what a difference it makes.

Anyway, if you have copies of guitars like the squires or mexicans you should deffinatley consider replacing the pick-ups (taking into account the guitar in question (face it a squier strat is not all that good to begin with so changing pick-ups (I'd save a little more and get the mexican at least))).

Go to http://www.seymourduncan.com/prodinfo.html and look at what they offer but also http://www.harmony-central.com/Guitar/Data2/.

Gibs; yeah I know what you mean about changing strings. I also know a couple of guitarists who will only ever do this when they absolutley have to. I didn't include that in knowing your guitar though as it's such a fundamental part of playing, or is it?
 
I've made adjustments to the intonation, string height, and pickup height. I've replaced the nut before....all these on an electric though....I've adjusted the bridge height on a couple of acoustics, but it makes me nervous to play around with them, so I usually leave the acoustics to more proficient and knowledgeable hands than mine.

I just got a set of the new Kinman Avn Plus series, a 56 (neck), 62 (middle), and SCn (bridge). They are supposed to have a faster attack and more output than the previous AVn series....I got them mainly to cut out the single coil hum...but I've never changed out pickups before...it doesn't look too difficult, but I'm leaning toward a professional installing them.
 
You are wise to leave the acoustics to a tech; they can be tricky as hell.

BUT...

If you want to start learning how, here's a dandy place to begin.

http://www.frets.com/
 
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